Free Jellied Eels and Zeppelins by Sue Taylor

loved all that. Great big things they were.
    He always had every Sunday off and he belonged to this crowd - his brother and sister-in-law, his nephew, Charlie and Edna - there was a big crowd of them and they all used to go out together on Sunday in the summer to seaside places like Walton and Frinton. Some had motor bikes and some had motor bikes with sidecars. They would all take their own food and park in the car parks there, spread their picnic out on cloths and have a bit of everybody’s. Proper merry crowd they were.
    Well, on the days that Doris’s chap used to work, Doris would ride on the back of Joe’s bike. One day, we’d been working on Saturday morning up until 12 o’clock, when Doris said ‘There’s that chap waiting who I go out with on Sundays.’ She told him ‘No, I can’t come tomorrow; Stan’s not working this week. Take Ethel instead.’ Joe said that he would take anybody who wanted to come. ‘I’ll make sure that she comes,’ Doris said. Joe told me that he’d be waiting for me at Forest Road at eight o’clock in the morning. So I said ‘Well, don’t wait too long - I probably won’t be there.’ I didn’t know what to wear or what I was going to take, but Mum said ‘Go on, you go! But I shall worry ‘til you get back, ‘cos you’ll be on a motor bike.’

    Joe on his motor bike
    I did go. We went to Walton-on-the-Naze. Mum said ‘Give him some cigarettes or something. That’ll pay for your day out. We won’t tell your father,’ ‘cos my Dad wouldn’t have ‘ad it, see. Well, I got on this bloomin’ motor bike and told Joe ‘Don’t go too fast!’ He said ‘If you’re frightened, put your arms around me waist and stick your fingers in me belt!’ I remember hanging on like mad. We never had any helmets or anything - just leather coats and berets. Once I ripped the sole off my new sandals goin’ round a corner! But they weren’t fast drivers and it was all country lanes then. We picked up the gang at the Green Gate, Ilford. I said to Joe ‘When we come back, don’t you dare drop me near my home - my Dad’ll kill me if he sees me on a motor bike!’ So he dropped me off at the top of the road and said ‘Come again if you feel like it.’ I said ‘All right, but I mustn’t let my Dad know.’ Mum was a good coverer though. We used to get back about six or seven in the evening, ‘cos we all had to go to work the next day.
    I used to really enjoy those outings. They were such a lovely crowd. I’ve still got the Primus stove we took to boil up the water for our tea. On the way home, we used to sing - Joe’s favourite song was ‘The Very Thought of You’ by Bing Crosby.’
    Ethel and Joe became engaged some three years later. The single diamond engagement ring came from Walkers, the Hoe Street jewellers. Their betrothal lasted for two years before they married during the Second World War in September 1940 at St. Michael’s Church, Walthamstow, where the weddings of Ethel’s parents and her sister Florrie had taken place.

Part Three
1939-1945

Thirteen
Doodlebugs and Dugouts
    ‘When you got home from work, before you’d even had time to change, it would be ‘Oh, blow - there it goes again (the air raid siren).’ So you’d quickly put on your dugout clothes and go into the shelter. You couldn’t even make yourself a cup of tea and you weren’t allowed to listen to the wireless in the dugouts. They used to switch off the stations then, in case the Germans picked it up.
    It was frightening, especially when you had those buzz-bombs or doodlebugs. You could hear them coming, and, when you heard them shut off, you thought ‘Oh God, is this our one?’ And, you’d wait for it to go bang, but you would always think ‘It might be us next’. And that’s how it went on. In the end, you did become a little hardened to it and you might say ‘Let’s go to bed and take a chance!’ But we never actually did take that chance - just in case.
    We came out of the